Exciting Expedition IN Eastbourne (3)

The plan, then, was to take a bus to Sovereign Harbour, there to investigate how the deserted wastes of the Crumbles had been turned into a vast Marina and residential area.

A quick gander at the Stagecoachbus web site revealed that fbb needed service 5 or 5A ...

... remembering, of course, that there is no road joining the two "halves" of the estate. The added bonus, on a stiflingly hot day, was that the 5s are the closest routes to No 3 son's pad ...

... just under the 5A blob, bottom left. So up smartly and into the centre of Eastbourne to forage for bus timetables. Eastbourne Corporation Transport had a travel shop in the Arndale Centre (now rebranded as The Beacon), but Stagecoach offers no such luxury.

First call, then, was to Eastbourne railway station.

Nowt.

Like Brighton, a very nice spacious booking and enquiry office near the main entrance from the town ...

... has been moved to a dark and poky corner, leaving the Southern Railway wellington boot hire service summarily withdrawn.

There is now no room for anything as revolutionary as printed timetables for trains, let alone anything for buses.

Next, off to the Tourist Information Office ...

... where there is oodles of display space and plenty of stuff on display; but no public transport information anywhere to be seen. 

Bravely, fbb asked the young lady behind the counter if she had any bus timetables. "Which one?" came back the prompt riposte.

"All of them", said fbb, "I am visiting and I want to explore." This concept was obviously totally alien to the staff and fbb was regarded with "polite suspicion" as she collated a set of Stagecoach leaflets. fbb left, clutching a small bundle, but obviously less than welcome.

Information on view and accessible at  a Tourist Information office - what a quaint idea.

A bench in the shade was located and the 5/5A leaflet perused. Many of the leaflets include groups of services (e.g. everything that runs via Hailsham) but the 5 stands on its own. Each excellent leaflet has an appropriate network map, either town services or the longer distance routes.

And so to the timetable itself.

The plan was to take the 1158 service 5A to Harbour South then, hopefully find a way through to Harbour North and catch a 5 back to No 3's noble residence. Town terminus was, as you can see, shown as Terminus Road.

Only it wasn't. Terminus Road, still being fettled, was utterly bereft of bus stops.

There were plenty of buses, but neither Stagecoach nor Eastbourne town council were prepared to tell you where they might be stopping. Fortunately for fbb, his Eastbourne host had told him that an "urban improvement scheme" was happening - so the old man was forewarned.

Once upon a time, buses stopped on Terminus Road in both directions; it was, effectively, Eastbourne's central bus station. Until quite recently, even after part of the road was pedestrianised, buses still served stops and shelters on both sides of the carriageway as per these slightly clunky Google streetview images. North side ...

... and south side ...

... and here on a map.

GREEN - pedestrianised, YELLOW - bus stops.

The grand plan has removed through traffic from much of the town centre and directed it via a mini Ring Road shown below in RED ... 

No doubt some of the planners would have liked to make the whole of Terminus Road into a traffic free zone, but common sense has prevailed with a buses only section (GREEN DASHED) but the bus stops for destinations south and east have been pushed further away from the Station.

There appears to be no good reason why the stops could not have been retained on Terminus Road, at least in one direction.

While work is in progress things are even worse with temporary stops near the roundabout at the far end of Cornfield Road (bottom centre on the view above).

They will move back along the road when it is all finished; as per the row of raised kerbs.

But the incompleteness meant that fbb would have to trudge even further for his service 5A. For cross-town routes, the situation is a little better as there is a new stop at the station (square blob on the map) ...

... which is more convenient for interchange. But the 5A is not a cross-town service.

Or is it?

There is a beguiling blue blob at the head of the 5A journeys on the printed timetable.

This explains that the bus "starts" from Eastbourne District Hospital and thus calls at the station stop before Cornfield Road. It is a service 56 that becomes a 5A.

Of course, the electronic sign at the station (could not be photographed properly) doesn't mention service 5A ...

... and just shows the 56 as terminating at "Eastbourne Town Centre". Other services are shown as running to "Town Centre" or even "Eastbourne". They are, obviously, all the same place! Isn't technology wonderful?

Likewise the departure lists make no mention of the 5A, merely showing the 56 as running on for just one stop. And again, journey planners ignore this useful link.

As the interworking is for operational reasons only, and only incidentally might help a few customers, (there being no 5A working the other way) it may be too much to ask to include the "facility" in electronic systems; but ...

... yet another strong argument in favour of printed timetable leaflets because ...

It is NOT all on line.

And before Mr Picky Anonymous makes a snide comment; the Stagecoach timetable as printed is on line in this case - but that is not always so.

This operational oddity probably has its origins in a past life when service 51 journeys from Hailsham ran through (as 51) alternately to Sovereign South and North.

After a short breather at the station stop, enhanced by a can of cold fizzy pop from a nearby emporium ...

... and a necessitous sit on a chair by the railings, provided by said fizzy pop shop stop, fbb was ready to board his service 56, sit tight at Cornfield Road and then speed off to the mysteries of Sovereign Harbour south.

What excitements would follow? The expedition continues tomorrow.

Good News For Arthur Wanting a Seat
At least one of the links (from the First Group web site) to the new Edinburgh Tours pages is now working ...

... and you can book seats on-line IF you can find the link!

But the mysterious www.brightbustours.com site, as advertised on the press release, still does not exist.

 Next Eastbourne blog : Wednesday 3rd July